Thursday's state baseball roundup

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Looks like Lincoln-Way East's baseball players are pretty good listeners.

Before the Griffins met Waubonsie Valley at North Central College on Thursday, they got some last-minute instructions from their coaches.

"We told them to come out aggressive and get an early lead," assistant coach Jason Helbling said.

The Griffins did just that, to the tune of an eight-run outburst in the top of the first inning. They wound up winning 12-3 to finish 3-0 in pool play and move to 16-2 overall.

East will take on Elk Grove at 10 a.m. Friday in semifinal action at North Central. The winner advances to the 7:30 p.m. title game vs. either Brother Rice or Waubonsie.

George Patteson continued his hot hitting for East, going 2-for-3 with three RBI. In the state tourney, he's batting .700 with eight RBI.

Also contributing offensively were Brandon Hohl (3-for-3, two doubles, two RBI), Ryan Herman (2-for-3, RBI) and Jeremy Cruz (1-for-3, RBI).

Jake Prieto got the win, alllowing five hits and two runs in five innings.

Jeff Brown was 1-for-2 with an RBI for Waubonsie (28-13).

Prairie Ridge 4, Warren 1: Logan Olson and Will Mack had RBI singles in the first inning and the Wolves (19-6, 2-1 pool play) went on to beat the Blue Devils (20-4, 0-3) at Benedictine University.

Kevin Pfaller added RBI hits in the third and fifth for Prairie Ridge, which lost the runs-allowed tiebreaker to advance to the semifinals. The Wolves gave up 15 runs in pool play to Brother Rice's seven and Elk Grove's 12.

Brett Loeding earned the win for the Wolves.

Vince Campanella had an RBI single in the fifth for Warren.

Naperville Central 5, Oak Park 4: The Redhawks (30-12, 1-2) let a 4-0 lead slip away, but rallied to win on Sammy Wandolowski's RBI single in the top of the sixth.

Bobby Czarnowski had a two-run single in Naperville's three-run first.

Sam Picchiotti hit a two-run homer for Oak Park (20-9, 0-3), P.J. Brennan was 2-for-3 and Jo Jo Maldanado doubled and drove in a run.